Julep January 2016 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’m back with new material today: a subscription box post! Instead of going through the backlog of subscription boxes that I didn’t get around to last year, I decided to skip ahead to this month’s Julep box to keep it current (well, sort of current, since it’s not January anymore). So today I have my January 2016 Julep box (New Year, Fresh Look) to show off on the blog, replete with swatches and nail art!

This month’s collection was full of gorgeous cool-colored shimmery shades that immediately caught my attention, so I was very taken with the polishes this month since those are right up my alley. For this month’s box, I just stuck to my favorite three shades from the collection, but there were so many other lovely polishes. I used the three colors plus Julep Mahima to create some eye-catching peacock feather nail art, which came out so very nicely. Read on to see all the polish!

Nail Art – Dark Gradient with Metallic Greek Key Pattern

Hi everyone! Sorry about my absence in the past two weeks; I’ve been feeling some “burnout” and felt too exhausted to do nail art/write posts. Anyhow, I’m back with some nail art that I was originally going to post after the second part of my blogiversary thing, but  I’ve been procrastinating on getting that post done so I figured I might as well put this up first.  I’ve been in a rather glum mood recently and the weather’s been nasty, so I’ve been drawn to a lot of dark, moody colors (Julep Elise is my <3) and ultimately decided to try one of the dark-colored nail art ideas that I hadn’t gotten around to. I was inspired by Julep’s metamorphic topcoats to create this (undesirably) subtle dark blue-to-green gradient that I accented with a bit of shiny gold polish in a Greek key pattern. While it didn’t turn out like how I originally intended, I’m still drawn to its dark glamor.

SquareHue March 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Although it isn’t March anymore, I still have my SquareHue March 2015 post on the blog! This post, unfortunately, ended up getting postponed to April because I was sick for quite a while and didn’t have much energy for nail art. But now that I’m better, I can show you all these fabulous polishes!

This month, SquareHue’s collection was inspired by the 1920s, and I can definitely see how the opulence of the Jazz Age inspired these shimmery, blingy bunch of polishes. As usual, I swatched all the polishes, did a few comparisons, and used all the polishes in the collection to create some fab nail art.

Julep August 2014 Maven Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve got some polishes from Julep’s August 2014 collection today (Wanderlust) that I swatched individually, and then combined into a sari-themed nail art design (with a tutorial!). Most of the polishes from this month were very vivid shimmers and microglitters, plus one glitter bomb. It’s a very rich and opulent bunch of colors – I love how it all together looks like jewelry! This month I picked the Bombshell box (again) with Neha and Tazeen, and added on Avni (Classic with a Twist) and Waleska (Boho Glam).

The whole collection seems to have been inspired by India, specifically sari colors. I can definitely see how the colors fit the theme, with the vibrant, saturated jewel tones. So I used all of the colors to create sari-inspired nail art! It’s easier than it looks, and I made a tutorial for it if anyone is interested. You can see everything below, starting with swatches:

Disney Series – Prince John’s Crown Inspired Tips + Disneyland! (Long Post)

Hi everyone! Once again, I would like to introduce you to my brand-new Instagram account (@emismanis) that shows my manicures going out and about in the world. I hope you readers appreciate it as a supplement to my blog 🙂

So I didn’t end up posting last week like I said I would because the planning for my Disneyland trip got a bit too hectic, but I am back this week with some more Disney-inspired designs! In my blog post for the first design in this Disney manicure series (this chic Minnie Mouse design), I wrote that my friends and I had been planning a trip to Disneyland for ages that FINALLY happened last week. The lead-up to this trip included me painting my friends’ nails with Disney related designs of their choosing, which was super fun. I only ended up painting two of my friends’ nails plus my own for a total of three designs, but I will feature the other two designs on myself sometime later. The trip was amazing!!! At the end of the post, I’ll post a few vacation photos for you all to look at.

The idea for my Disneyland nails comes from Disney’s 1973 film Robin Hood (yes, the one where the characters are anthropomorphic animals), which my friend Kimi and I were watching when we first hatched the Disney manicure idea. Kimi can correct me on this, but I think I said something like, “So…what Disney character should I paint on my nails?” and Kimi pointed at the screen and said something like, “Dude, Prince John.” Once we bounced around ideas for how a Prince John manicure would look, I really loved the design and went with it. We came up with a manicure based on the Disney villain’s bejeweled crown, into which I incorporated real rhinestones for extra bling and regality. Take a look: